Ant Botha says the Club’s contingent of spinners will be working hard this winter to improve performances ahead of the 2016 season.
Botha will be working with Derbyshire’s frontline spin bowlers throughout the off-season, as well as the batting all-rounders, in preparation for the new campaign.
Providing the crop of spinners with more tools in their armoury and improving technical aspects in their actions is what Botha will be focusing on over the next few weeks.
“Our spin group is young, but they are developing well,” Botha said. “Their development is about giving them the tools that they need to compete, that comes down to some technical changes.
“We are giving them weapons such as spin, drift, bounce – these sort of things are obviously what spinners need to take wickets. There have been a few technical changes over the last year and what we are trying to do at the moment is recap on what we have done and then move the process forward over the winter and into next season.”
#InsideDerbyshire: We bring you footage from #DCCC's spinners' first bowling session of pre-season #P2bD https://t.co/IqJw6ENbPO
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Botha is looking for each of the frontline spinners to have the ability to take more wickets next season but stressed that expectations must be managed.
“The reality is that spinners mature at about the age of 27. We have two frontline spinners at the moment in Tom Knight and Matt Critchley who are young guys. If we can get them 10-15 more wickets then we will be moving the process forward quicker.
“We are giving Tom Knight the required weapons he needs but with that it takes time. He needs to be bowling regularly now, Tom understands that this year coming up he has to start putting those foundations into practice and we’re confident he can do that.
“It is important that also our expectations of Matt Critchley aren’t too high, he’s still only 19 years old. He has got great attributes, he naturally turns the ball and he has the potential to play at the highest level.
“We have to also remember for a lot of them it is not their first string, they are actually batsmen. Scott Elstone is a batting all-rounder, Wes Durston has also been a batting all-rounder although we are looking at potentially having him more as a spinner/batsman in first-class cricket.
“Wes is someone who is growing in the spin department. He is enjoying bowling spin and I think he sees himself as a frontline spinner now. His target will be also to move those numbers along in terms of taking wickets next summer.”
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